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A Festival of Travel Writing (Melbourne, Australia)

Posted at 04:43PM Jun 23, 2008 by geekgal

Grab your passport to the Melbourne Festival of Travel Writing and get on board for a weekend of new ways to talk about travel.

Running from 19-20 July 2008 at The University of Melbourne, the festival unites a lineup of experts and personalities from all over the world to talk about what they love - travel and writing about it.

The guestlist includes:

Lonely Planet's Tony Wheeler and Best American Travel Writer Tom Swick (US);

Food and travel writers Greg and Lucy Malouf and Fiona Dunlop (UK);

Acclaimed authors Robert Dessaix, Sophie Cunningham and Arnold Zable;

Connoisseurs of European culture Elaine Lewis, Simon Capp and Marc Llewellyn;

Freelance writers & photographers Greg Elms, Angus McDonald and Tom Tacker;

Race-around-the-worlder Tony Wilson, Couch-surfer Brian Thacker and Big-tripper George Dunford;

English Language Teacher extraordinaire Gillian Kendall (US) and roving writer Howard Wolf (US);

Slow Travellers Martin Hughes and James Braund; and

Historical writers Lucy Sussex and Antoni Jach.

As part of the festival co-founder of Lonely Planet Publications Tony Wheeler will give a free public lecture entitled 'Finding Time to Travel: Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Travel Writing'.

Among the interesting topics Tony will cover: What insights into the travel practices of a lost era can we glean from history books and out-of-date guidebooks? Does the actual time of travel define its relative and intrinsic value? Has there been or will there be a better time to travel than others? What is the future of travel writing? How is science fiction travel writing?

Lonely Planet panels, travel writing and travel photography workshops are also on the agenda, so you can try your hand at the craft.

For more information and booking details, visit www.mftw.com.au.

Related Thorn Tree Forum Branches: Don't Forget To Write, Guidebook Feedback.